NVIDIA GeForce3 based products should start selling within the coming two weeks, as the graphics card manufacturers say. We should point out that GeForce3 chip has undergone some changes within the period since the chip announcement up to nowadays. Besides the new chip revisions, which appear more stable and reliable than the predecessors, NVIDIA also developed an enhanced version of the card reference design. The newest reference card design is known as A09, while the design of the graphics card samples, which have been shipped recently, is known as A05. However, we can’t say that the PCB design has been changed a lot. Both design versions look very much like one another and differ only by a few electronic components soldered to the card. According to the official info, which we managed to get hold of due to our friends from Reactor Critical, all these modifications are aimed at increasing the cards’ stability, which results into higher yields and smaller manufacturing cost.
On the other hand, design changes bring one more positive consequence. Due to higher stability of the new PCB design, the cards based on it will boast higher overclockability. That is why it may happen that many GeForce3 based cards will be able to run at frequencies much higher than the nominal ones. It may also let NVIDIA launch some "Ultra" cards working at higher frequencies.
Our sources in NVIDIA confirm that there will be several products based on GeForce3 chip, including value MX-like NV17 and extra-high performance Ultra-like GeForce3. The official launching of these versions may take place this autumn already.